


Clashed

by princesscas



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Hero | Luminary is Named Eleven | El (Dragon Quest XI), M/M, Mia has stolen Erik's single braincell, POV Alternating, POV Third Person, Pen Pals, Pining, finally a happy ending, guess what it's fluff hours, including flirting, kind of, she has to do everything for him, so if you don't ship that don't worry, very minor hendrik/jasper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25603039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princesscas/pseuds/princesscas
Summary: Nobody talks about whatever nameless feelings connect Erik and El. The only place either one brings it up is with their counterpart in an anonymous email exchange, as Blue and Astre. Which is probably fine.It's not like they know the other in real life or anything. What are the chances?(a modern AU with anonymous emails, bubble tea, and mild chaos)
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Implied Graig | Hendrik/Homer | Jasper
Comments: 132
Kudos: 51





	1. Hey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we meet everyone at the bubble tea shop!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> The plot of this is very loosely based on Shop Around The Corner. In other words, it's an enemies to friends to lovers trope, with some anonymous emails thrown in for flavor!
> 
> It matters Absolutely Zero if you have seen it or not. just wanted to let people know that is where I got the idea.
> 
> Enjoy! I put far too much effort into this.

El sighed.

Tuesdays were the hardest, because of the deals. Normally the crowds were easy to handle, but Tuesdays were another story altogether. He didn’t blame the customers: it was a good deal to get the large size drink for the price of a regular, but he did wish that they didn’t all come in at the same time. If only the guests had the courtesy to arrive at regular intervals, rather than in a pack around four in the afternoon, then he would have had fun on Tuesdays.

It was fine, though. Just another day.

He shrugged his jacket off so he was in just his work t-shirt, and placed his bag in what was becoming known as his spot: on top of the chair by the door to the main area. Turning around, he pushed the door open and took a sip from his water bottle, which was quickly snatched out of his hands.

“You should really consider getting a good bottle. Keeps the temperature better,” the water bottle thief remarked, setting it down in the pile behind the counter, next to everyone else’s (much nicer) beverage-holding vessels.

“My water bottle’s fine,” El protested, his mouth twisting into a frown.

“Yeah, I guess.”

El already knew who the thief was, but still glanced away from the water bottle corner to meet his sparkling sea-blue eyes. He was smirking, as usual, and he was doing that thing with his hair again, sweeping the spikes out of his face effortlessly with his hand.

Erik always did that. El had seen it a thousand times.

Just another day, indeed.

“Oi! Get in here, we need some help!” Veronica hissed from the cash register. “Come _on._ ”

“‘Course, Ronnie,” Erik said, shooting her one of his charming smiles that worked on everyone but El. Maybe he just hadn’t tried it yet. In any case, he didn’t find Erik quite as perfect as everyone else seemed to think he was. Sure, he looked good in the work uniform, and all the customers seemed to like talking to him, and he could be pretty nice when he wanted to, but El still didn’t know what they saw in him.

El skirted around Veronica and Gemma to his usual place at the end of the assembly line, and took the sealed drinks that the latter offered him with a smile. He checked Veronica’s hasty handwriting for a good few seconds before he was able to discern the names and call them out to the waiting customers.

Another good thing about Erik. His handwriting was legible.

El told his brain to shut up.

It appeared that Veronica was right about the rush coming, because within minutes there was a crowd of people - mostly high school students, but some adults and the occasional smattering of middle schoolers - coming in through the door, and after fifteen minutes there was a line out the door.

It was easy to shake the thoughts about Erik when he was working, so he occupied himself as best he could. He didn’t spill one drink all afternoon, and he remembered to refill the sealing machine before it ran out. Overall, a pretty good day. 

At least, until he saw a familiar face walking in through the door. 

Well, it was less about the face, and more about the hair. He had seen that braid before, and the color was all too familiar. The exact same shade of blue as Erik’s. There was nothing wrong with Mia: in fact, El liked her company, but today her presence was all it took to remind himself about Erik, and that was a problem in itself.

Part of it was that he was jealous. Of course he was jealous of Erik, with his perfect hair and laid-back attitude and easygoing smile and natural charm. The other part was that he knew Erik didn’t like him. That was the part that got to him. El was generally a pretty likeable person, or so he thought, but Erik wouldn’t stop with his casual insults. Some days he wondered what he had done wrong, but eventually came to the conclusion that Erik simply didn’t like him, and that there was no particular reason for it.

As ridiculous as it might have sounded, El had never had someone who didn’t like him before, and it really sucked.

El quickly got back to the waiting lineup of drinks that Gemma had finished adding tea to, and found himself subconsciously watching the labels for Mia’s name. It wasn’t hard to find, because whenever she came in and Erik was taking orders, he would draw a little hibiscus flower on her cup. Mia always got hibiscus tea with her drinks, but her order changed all the time, so El sometimes checked it and predicted if she would like it.

The hibiscus stuck out among the other cups, and he sealed it first. He technically wasn’t supposed to do that, but since it was for Erik’s sister, he figured it was fine. All the staff had a soft spot for her, Veronica most of all, and they all turned a blind eye to her special treatment.

Today’s drink was peach, pomegranate and rose. A lot of strong flavors, but that was a classic Mia move, so she would probably enjoy it.

“Hey, El,” Mia greeted, sliding down the assembly line to stand next to El at the end where he handed out drinks. She stopped at the counter. “How’s it going today?”

“Take a look around.”

“Good?”

El sighed. “Too many people, but I guess that means more business, so that’s technically good.” He handed her the cup with her tea drink, and she whipped out her fat metal straw, piercing the plastic cover and waiting for his verdict. “I think you’ll like that one. Strong flavors, though.”

She took a sip, and then nodded. “Damn. How do you do that?”

El gave a wry smile. “One of the benefits of working at a bubble tea shop.”

“Bullshit. I don’t think Erik can do that, El, it’s just you.” Mia impaled a few tapioca balls on her straw, trapping them inside, and then took another long sip. “Anyway, it’s pretty cool.”

“If you say so,” El replied, and she rolled her eyes.

Mia left to heckle Veronica, which she would undoubtedly complain about once their shift was over and they were in the back room. El knew she didn’t really mind, though. Mia and Veronica thought the same way, and were always cackling together about something or other. She would likely move left to Gemma later, and they would chat about Mia’s latest antics at school. Maybe today she’d even be let into the back to talk to Serena while she was brewing more tea.

***

By the time Mia left (with a considerable amount of persuasion on Erik’s part, and a reassurance that she could order pizza for them when she got home) the workday was almost over, and before he knew it, El was back in the staffroom again. 

Gemma turned off the music that usually filled the space, Serena took inventory on their flavor supplies, Veronica packed up both her own and her sister’s bags, and Erik was taking off his shirt. Which made El feel kind of weird. Before he could investigate that further, Erik had his normal t-shirt on again, and tied his hoodie around his waist.

“Why do you bring the hoodie if you never wear it?” El asked, in an attempt to distract himself from the sight he had just witnessed.

“Someday I might want it.” 

“But you never do.” Erik’s hair was all messed up from the shirt, but somehow it didn’t look bad. Maybe Erik’s spikiness wasn’t caused by hair products. How could something like that be natural, though? Then again, there had to be some seriously weird hair traits in Erik’s family to have that cerulean color. That was also natural, because Mia had it, so -

“I just have good cold resistance,” Erik said to nobody in particular. Oh, wait, he was saying that to El. Right. He was so distracted. By nothing. Nothing at all. Nope. Why did he even think that? It wasn’t worthy of his thoughts.

El tugged at the zipper of his jacket. “It’s January,” he argued. Why was he even continuing the conversation? It made no sense.

“Yeah, but the city doesn’t get that cold.” Erik slung his bag over one shoulder, grabbing his water bottle by the handle. His high quality, expensive, still-cold water bottle. “I gotta go. Mia’s probably eating all the pizza without me.”

He was out the door before El could even say goodbye.

El’s shoulders sank, and he had no idea why. He felt a pang of something he couldn’t identify as he picked up his own water bottle, which was fine. It was just fine. It didn’t matter that the paint was worn or that the water was more straight-out-of-the-tap temperature than cold. He didn’t need anything more than that. Erik liked his stuff flashy and valuable. El didn’t care.

“Bye, El, Gemma,” Veronica called loudly from the door, prompting Serena to rush over, inventory notebook in hand, to catch it before it fell shut behind her. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence. Serena was so absentminded that it happened almost every day.

“Are you _sure_ you’re alrigh’, El?” Gemma asked quietly from her spot in the chair next to him. “You seem a bit … strange today.”

“I’m doing fine, why?” El replied in a rush, far too quickly to be anything close to true.

Gemma sighed heavily. “I know you’re not, but it’s none o’ my business. I’ve got this for you, though,” she said, offering a slip of paper that looked like it was from one of her fancy notepads, the ones with blue decor around the edges.

“What is it?”

She smiled softly. “Someone I think you should meet. Jus’ … try talkin’ to ‘im,” she added before letting the door close behind her.

El unfolded the little piece of paper, noting the flowers curling around the page’s border. In the center was an email address written neatly in blue ink. The handwriting looked familiar, but it was probably just Gemma’s. She did take orders sometimes, so he had seen it on several occasions. It was nothing he should worry about.

He started on his way out, tucking his bottle into the bag, where it was cushioned by the extra jacket he had yet to use the entire month. Maybe he was more like Erik than he had thought.

***

El was greeted by a warm wave of potsticker-scented air when he opened the door to his apartment. He threw his bag onto the couch, then threw himself to its left, removing his phone and his water bottle (why couldn’t he stop thinking about Erik’s comment earlier?) and setting them both on the coffee table.

“Long day?” Jade asked, leaning against the doorframe leading to the kitchen. El shook his head. “What is it? I know there’s something on your mind.”

“Nothing,” El mumbled, unscrewing the cap of his bottle and throwing back the last of the water.

“I don’t particularly want to guess.” Jade shot him a glare, which he pointedly ignored, instead swiping his phone open and scrolling through the latest on his social media. She sighed, the note of exasperation amplified by her crossed arms. “In that case, I’ll just invite Hendrik and Jasper over for dinner.”

“Are you threatening me with guests?” El asked, his forgotten phone dropping back into his bag.

Jade smirked. “I might be.”

“You wouldn’t actually invite them,” El declared with more confidence than he felt. It was really more of a question than a statement, but Jade didn’t need to know that. If he was being honest, she probably already knew, but that didn’t matter.

“No, I wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m willing to listen.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine. It’s nothing, really.”

A timer went off in the kitchen, and Jade shook her head gently at El before leaving the doorframe and cutting off the offending noise. She had long ago accepted that El wasn’t ever back in time to make dinner, so they had made a deal where he made breakfast for both of them, and they each made or bought their own lunches. Jade definitely had gotten the short straw, but she never complained. El was grateful that he had such a good roommate. Jade was probably the best he could have asked for. It was like living with an older sister.

Realizing his phone was lost somewhere in his bag, El rummaged through its contents. In his search, he found the little blue-edged note that Gemma had slipped him, and thought about what she had said. Someone he should meet, huh? He could probably do worse than one of Gemma’s friends. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. If it would make her happy, he would do it.

El opened up his email and switched over to his giveaway account (just in case, plus this way he could stay anonymous) and typed in the address. He debated what to write - was it best to just say hello, or should he provide some information? Or should he have used his personal email so they would know who was messaging them?

El didn’t like social interaction. So many opportunities to mess up.

This was only one of Gemma’s friends, after all, and she knew El pretty well. She wouldn’t have asked that he talk to someone who would judge him for being … the way he was. It was going to be fine.

Still, his fingers stilled above the miniscule keyboard, and it took a lot of consideration and internal debate before he settled on just typing like he would have talked. Which was a disaster, but he figured it would be better to get it over with.

_Hey._

_Okay, that was really awkward. Um. Anyway. My friend Gemma gave me your email and said I should talk to you, so if you want to blame someone for that, try her._

_Before you make a decision on whether or not to respond, you should know a few things about me. I’m the same age as Gemma, and I assume you are as well (correct me if I’m wrong). I have long-ish hair and I’m average height, but that’s all kind of boring, so I’ll move on to interesting stuff now._

_I like purple (is that weird for a guy?) and my favorite season is fall. I like rainy days, because I get to stay inside and have sitcom marathons with my roommate. She’s like my sister, and I’m so glad I have her. Right now, she’s making dinner, which is nice because I don’t really like cooking, and I got home from work a few minutes ago._

_If you don’t want to respond, that’s fine, but please let me know so that I can heckle Gemma about making me do this. If you do want to respond, I’d like to know a few things about you as well. What’s your favorite season? I feel like that’s a good way to understand a person better._

_-Astre_

“El! Get in here, you spoiled little prince. I’ve got food for you,” Jade called.

El tapped the ‘send’ button without letting himself think too hard, wrapping his phone in the jacket he never used so he couldn’t hear the vibration of his response (if there was one).

He speedwalked away from his bundled phone as fast as he could, and plunked himself down in one of the chairs by their dining table, or ‘second coffee table’ as Jade liked to call it. The bowl of stir-fried vegetables and potstickers was gone quickly, and El found that it did nothing to ease the strange anxiousness pooling in his stomach. He suspected that it had nothing to do with the food and everything to do with the email he’d just sent. Sure, he had done some rambling, and he had used an odd name, but it wasn’t all that bad … right?

For some reason, he found himself drawn back to the lump that he so desperately wanted to ignore. He dug his phone out of the jacket and found, to his surprise, that there was a reply already. El held his breath as he opened the notification, and was surprised that it was just as long as his had been, if not longer.

_Hey._

_That’s not at all weird. I do that all the time._

_Gemma told you this email? Huh. I remember giving it to her, but she’s never messaged me on here before. Kinda odd that she gives it to you before she uses it herself, but I’m not going to question her methods._

_Don’t worry, I’m the same age as you too. I don’t know how to describe my hair other than ‘fabulous’ so that’s what you’re getting._

_I agree about the season thing. That’s a good indicator about what a person’s like. You said fall, so I’m assuming you’re the kind of person who likes to drink tea and gets cold easily. I know where you’re coming from with that, but I’m more of a winter person. My sister and I used to go outside at night when it was really cold and yell at the wind, or sometimes even the rain. Stuff like “is that all you’ve got?”. That probably sounds stupid, but I liked it. Still do, if I’m honest. My sister’s impulsive like that, but so am I, so I can’t talk._

_I live with my sister figure too, except she’s my actual sister and I do most of the cooking. She’s annoying as hell. You know. As little sisters are. They have a habit of causing headaches._

_-Blue_

_p.s. I had a lot of trouble choosing a name, but I think ‘blue’ is fine. It also answers your favorite color question._

El grinned.

“What’s got you all … positive emotioned?” Jade asked, her tone carrying a hint of amusement.

“I talked to someone, and he talked back.”

“Oh. I see.” Jade gave a very odd cough that El strongly suspected masked a snicker. Under normal circumstances, El would have done something about her attitude, most likely something involving complaining. But there was nothing normal about this situation, so he let her get away with it for once. He was already typing out another message.

_Hey Blue,_

A little bit informal, but it would probably be good to turn his slip-up into a joke. Blue didn’t seem to have minded that he did it, so maybe that could become his thing.

_Your sister sounds like fun, as do you. Fabulous hair? I’d like to see you try to beat mine. Everyone says it’s silky and things like that._

El smiled. That seemed like a good start.

Maybe Gemma was right. It was worth a try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These names are shamelessly stolen from Love Simon. Blue is direct, and Astre is inspired by Jacques. Astre is French for star / luminary, and since I had no idea how to pronounce the French work for Eleven that’s what you get.
> 
> There is a singular canon line slipped in here and nobody will spot it. >:)  
> UPDATE: the canon line has been spotted OwO
> 
> I am so, so sorry to anyone who works in a boba shop. This is based off of one from my neighborhood, so it’s very biased! Anyway, I hope you found this fun!


	2. And It Goes Unnoticed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Erik makes a lot of mistakes, as per usual, but has no room to regret them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome! I'm so happy you're here!
> 
> One week has passed between these chapters, so it's next Tuesday.
> 
> Other than that, nothing to say today, except enjoy!

_ Hey Blue, _

Erik’s face broke out into a grin at those words, even if they were just displayed on his laptop’s screen. He could almost hear what Astre sounded like: Erik knew that he was on the shy side, so he spoke softly. He read the emails in the voice that he imagined Astre might have, but he didn’t make it too specific, just in case he was someone else entirely.

_ I’m sorry it took so long to reply, I stayed at work a little late last night and helped close up shop. When I came back to my apartment, my roommate was gone, so I had to order my own food (imagine the struggle!) and then I went to bed immediately. I was really tired, but I feel better now, so here I am, sitting on my couch, drinking some tea and writing you an email. _

_ I’m still mad that your tea prediction was correct, so I’m going to guess that you’re a coffee person. I feel like I deserve to get a chance to prove myself. Please tell me if I’m right!!! And if I’m not, feel free to lord it over me. _

_ Do you like reading? What’s your favorite genre? I’m a fantasy person, but I like a good realistic fiction book once in a while. Okay, I tried, but I just can’t help myself. I’m going to guess that you read mysteries, and that you like books with magic in them. Not necessarily high-level magic, just a universe where magic exists. _

_ You asked about my neighbors, so I’ll give you a brief rundown. If I name their names, they’ll probably attempt to kill me, and then you just because you know, so I won’t disclose that information. I live next to this couple, and they’re so blatantly in love that it’s almost annoying. My roommate likes them a lot, and sometimes invites them over, which is terrible. Not that they’re bad, but they both steal all our food. What do I expect, though? It’s just two guys. _

_ I think overall I’m mostly jealous. They’ve got something good. Sometimes I hear two completely different types of music blasting at max volume at the same time from their side of the apartment. They fight all the time, but I know it’s not serious, and eventually one of them gives in and just kisses the other until they shut up. It never takes long. _

_ I swear your sister gets better with every email you write to me. If you don’t have neighbors, I’d be glad to hear more about her. Or any other stories you have. _

_ -Astre _

Astre must have been feeling pretty guilty about the late message, because it was longer than his usual ones. Not that Erik was complaining. He loved reading them. Maybe next time he saw Gemma at work, he would thank her for giving his private email out to some random stranger. Well, one of her friends, but still.

Erik leaned his chair back and took a long sip from his coffee mug before attacking his keyboard with no regard for the time. His lateness was becoming a rapidly increasing problem, and it was entirely Astre’s fault. Erik was too distracted writing to him and waiting for his replies to do anything else, so getting to his morning classes on time was a lower priority. Luckily, today was Tuesday, so he could spend all day being generally lazy. At least, until after lunch. He still had to work today, but at least that was in the afternoon.

For now, he could enjoy the free time. Erik pondered the possibilities. He could stay on the couch all day, and binge watch some show. Maybe make himself a snack. Chocolate chip cookies were easy, and Mia never objected to it, since she usually stole one of the trays for herself (and her friends, she claimed, but Erik was certain she ate at least three by herself on the bus to school every time).

_ Hey Astre, _

_ It’s no problem. I don’t mind the later replies. Better late than never, right? Anyway, I’m just glad that you still talk to me. There aren’t that many people who tolerate me as frequently as you do. I have no idea what you mean about having to order your own food. You’re sounding like my sister now. I can’t believe it’s gonna be February tomorrow. Her birthday’s coming up, I guess. _

_ I’m holding a coffee in my hand, so yeah. I’m a coffee person. I like tea, but it doesn’t satisfy my need for caffeine. Now I’m sad that I don’t have something to lord over you. That sounds fun. _

_ Damn. You got me. Mystery is one of my favorites, but I like fantasy too. Wait - I do have something to lord over you! Bet you didn’t think I was a romance kinda person, but I like a good romance once in a while. Boom. You probably think I’m lying, but I’m not. _

_ Your neighbors sound like they’re living my dream life. I have a cute husband, and I get to annoy him sometimes, and we have good neighbors who let me steal their food. I think I’ve found my life goal. Fuck college, I need to get married immediately. Actually, never mind. I think I should probably keep taking classes. _

_ I do have neighbors, but they never come over. I don’t really like them that much. It’s this rich-ass family and their daughter, who’s blonde and super shy. She goes to my sister’s high school, and her name’s Frysabel. Apparently her parents forced her to go to private school against her will for, like, all of her childhood, and I just can’t respect that decision. My sister says they’re friends now, so I guess that’s good. _

Erik paused, wondering how to continue, but an idea came to him quickly. There was one way to make this day even better … 

_ I’m going to spend the whole morning doing jack shit, so if you have any sitcom recommendations, hand them over. Well - type them, whatever. Same thing. _

_ -Blue _

Perfect.

Erik sent the message, smiling giddily (why was he doing that? He hadn’t done that in years). He let his feet take him to the kitchen and started to pull out the flour, sugar, and chocolate chips from the pantry.

“Good fuckin’ morning - OH!” Mia sprinted into the kitchen, her socks sliding across the floor, immediately opening the spice cabinet and taking out the vanilla and the salt for him, setting them on the counter next to the other ingredients he’d already removed. He knew it was her way of showing affection. She didn’t really show interest in learning how to cook yet, but she helped out when it was something she liked. Even if it was just remembering all the ingredients or helping him wash the dishes afterwards, it was useful. At this point, he’d take whatever he could get when it came to Mia.

“You’re welcome,” Erik said as he turned on the stand mixer, drowning out Mia’s lack of response.

She only rolled her eyes, but Erik knew full well that she was happy, and that was enough for him. So what if she had to crack the eggs into a separate bowl? Maybe she had potential. Erik would never let her become their resident cookie maker, though. That was a title reserved solely for him.

Mia wandered into the living room as he progressed to the parchment-lined cookie sheets. She flopped onto the couch, taking out her phone from God-knows-where and scrolling lazily through what was most likely her Instagram feed. Erik finished dropping the last of the dough into little lumps on the cookie sheets, set a timer for nine minutes on the first tray and walked back into the living room.

A mistake.

“Okay, what the hell is  _ this, _ huh? Tell me,” Mia demanded, shoving his open laptop threateningly at him and waving it around in a way that was sure to shorten its lifespan. When did she even get that? Hadn’t it been on the table? “You’re supposed to tell me if you’re dating someone.”

“I’m not,” Erik replied, raising one eyebrow.

Mia frowned, pointedly clicking open his email to reveal one new notification. With a sinking feeling, Erik realized that it was a new email from Astre. It was coupled with a strange sense of anticipation. Did her comment mean that Astre had said something about being interested in him?

Not that he wanted that, of course.

“Want me to read you the email?” Mia spat, giving him her most powerful glare. Erik had taught her too well.

“No, I actually don’t.”

“Well, tell your boyfriend I say hi.” She smirked and dropped the laptop the (thankfully) short distance into his hands, mail tab open to the message already. How convenient. Erik assumed Mia had already read through the entire thing. Great.

_ Hey Blue, _

_ Of course I like talking to you. I think Gemma had the right idea. How do you know her, by the way? I know she gets around a lot. I met her in grade school, and we’ve been friends for a while since then. I still see her all the time. Her parents used to think we were going to get together, but we never did. I don’t think they know that she’s more into women than I am. _

_ You’re right - I didn’t have you pegged for a romance reader, but you never know. I don’t like books that are romance-focused, but on the side it can be really interesting. _

_ If your dream life is to live like my neighbors, you should meet them in person. They’d be all too happy to tell you about why you shouldn’t marry someone like their partner. They both have this thing where they pretend to hate the other, but we all know they don’t. The fact that they’re married kind of ruins the effect. _

_ Frysabel, huh? That’s an unusual name. Is that a rich people thing? I’m glad that she got to go to public high school, though. I think I’ll never say that again. High school sucks, but I’ve never been to private school, so I don’t know if it’s any better. _

_ Sitcoms? I can help with that. I’ll just give you a few. I like the IT Crowd and Parks and Recreation. Okay, I won’t name all the other ones that I like, but yeah, those are good. Maybe you’ve already seen some of them, but hey, that just means you have good taste. _

_ I’m not doing anything either. I have to go to work in the afternoon, but for the morning, I’m doing nothing. And by nothing, I mean most likely having a mild existential crisis. _

_ On second thought, I think I’ll take a leaf out of your book. Sitcoms are probably a better use of my time. _

_ -Astre _

Erik smiled softly at the words as he scrolled, but in reality his brain was already working overtime to transform Astre’s words into something that promoted the notion Mia had gathered. He had said that he wasn’t interested in women … kind of. Was that it? The romance comment? The thing about his neighbors? He wasn’t sure, but it did all seem to add up. Was she right? Because he wouldn't exactly  _ mind _ if she was.

He stopped himself there. Astre barely knew him, and besides, his track record on relationships wasn’t too good.

Plus there was no chance that Mia was even remotely correct, Erik reminded himself furiously.

“ _ So, _ ” Mia started. “Tell me. Astre? Is that his actual name? And why does he call you blue? Aside from the hair, obviously, but -  _ oh shit is that a pet name? _ ”

“What the fuck?” Erik shook his head, cutting her off. “No, we’re just friends. And he calls me that because he doesn’t know my actual name. Astre is his name thing too.”

“I thought you had a crush on El, though,” she said, far too loudly for Erik’s tastes.

“I don’t,” Erik insisted, which was  _ not _ a lie. Mostly.

He teased El all the time, but apparently he hadn’t picked up on it. Erik tried to keep that in check, but it was hard. He got the feeling most of the staff at the boba shop knew about it. Pretty much everyone except for El.

“Shame. I wouldn’t mind having him over, y’know.” Mia raised her eyebrows suggestively, and he ignored what she was implying. Erik knew all too well that El was a good choice for him: he was super fun to tease, and his smile lit up his eyes in that way that made Erik feel kind of warm inside, and he had the Mia Seal Of Approval, which was very important, apparently. He could have named more reasons, but that wasn’t the focus here anyway. Actually, he was disproving his own point. Not exactly the best way to convince Mia that he was right.

The shrill notes of protest from the timer in the kitchen relieved him of his thoughts, and Erik flipped Mia off before leaving. She returned the gesture, albeit with a smile on her face, and they both knew that was the end of it. A silent peace offering, one they’d developed over time. A bit strange, but then again, so was everything else they did.

Erik reset the timer, swapping the trays of cookies. No doubt Mia would claim the first one, but that was fine. He wasn’t going to complain. At least that way he got the warmer tray of cookies.

And nobody was around to judge him for eating the entire thing.

He had no plans of doing that today. Not when he was going to be occupied with Astre’s sitcoms. Well, only one of them, since he’d already watched most of Parks and Recreation. One new tab and a brief search later, he discovered that the IT crowd was on Netflix. Even better. Their Netflix may have been stolen from one of Mia’s friends, but Erik wasn’t about to say no to free streaming services. It was just taking advantage of the system.

“Shit. The 7 bus is in, like, four minutes, so I gotta go.” Mia swung her backpack over one shoulder, grabbing a container and unceremoniously stealing the entire sheet of cookies, parchment and all. “Bye! Have fun brooding in your mancave!”

“I will,” Erik reassured her, grinning as he shut the door behind her and slid the second tray of cookies into the oven.

***

Erik did, in fact, enjoy watching Astre’s recommended show.

He restrained himself from eating all the cookies, saving seven of them like he usually did. Five of them went into his work bag, while the other two stayed on the tray, waiting for Mia when she came home. One of them was supposed to be his, too, but she would probably eat it. He wouldn’t blame her if she did. It was chocolate chip cookies, after all, and who could resist them? Not Mia, that was for sure.

***

“Oh! Hello, Erik.” Serena leaned out of the door, beaming when she saw Erik walking in. He set his bag down on top of the drawers that the girls used to store their non-work clothes while they were working, and placed the container with five cookies on the countertop.

“Hi,” Erik replied, glancing around the room. El was nowhere to be seen. Erik frowned. He had been wanting to talk to him. He wasn’t entirely sure what about, but he had a strange feeling that talking to El was a good idea. Most of Erik’s good ideas weren’t at all good, but this one was different. Maybe. He plunked himself down onto a chair near where Serena was waiting for her latest batch of tea (jasmine, he noted) to finish brewing.

_ Told you you have a crush on El, _ Mia taunted from inside his head.

Actually, scratch that idea. The person he needed to talk to was Gemma. She owed him one hell of an explanation.

“Chocolate chip. A good choice for once.”

Erik smirked at the familiar voice. “And none of them are for you, Ronnie.”

Veronica made a ridiculously fake pouting face, giving Erik her best puppy eyes, the ones he was immune to. Mia had tried to pull the same trick countless times, and eventually it stopped working. “Don’t lie to me. I have eyes. There’s five of them.”

“Yeah, and I’m giving El two,” Erik shot back before he could stop himself.

_ You know I’m right. _ Mia-in-his-head nearly cackled with satisfaction.

Veronica’s eyebrows disappeared into the fringe of her bangs, and she pursed her lips, but the corner of her mouth turned upwards, like she was trying to hold back a smile. “I see how it is. Give him all the hints you want, but he’ll never fall for you. He’s too good to choose someone like you. Still, I commend your efforts, however shitty.”

Despite his usual composure, Erik felt his face heating up slightly and cursed Mia’s comments earlier about El. Undoubtedly this was all her fault. Not his. It had nothing to do with the fact that he did find El kind of attractive. “I’m not - that’s not the point.”

“What’s not the point? Sorry, I was talking to Gemma. Oh, are those cookies?” El asked, waving his hand in what was probably the general direction of the container Erik had brought in.

Fuck.

“Yes! Erik brought them in for us, but he said you can have two! Isn’t that awfully nice of him?” Serena was obviously angling for something, but Erik didn’t want to know what it was.

El gave Erik a shy smile. He was too cute for his own good.

Where did  _ that _ come from?

“Was it Veronica’s?” El asked quietly, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

“No,” Erik cut in before Veronica could give her usual indignant confirmation. “No, you can have mine. I had a few earlier today anyway, it’s fine,” he explained at Veronica’s stunned silence.

“Thank you,” El said softly, taking a seat on the chair next to Erik.

“No problem. I was just being lazy this morning.” Erik leaned back in his chair, in what he hoped was an unbothered and casual manner that said  _ I don’t have a crush on you or anything, but I really want you to kiss me right now. _ Which was  _ not  _ what he was feeling, thanks, Mia.

“This is your definition of lazy?” El asked incredulously, finishing off his first cookie. “I need to be around when you’re feeling lazy more often, then. These are good.”

Erik didn’t have a chance to respond before Gemma frantically waved to him from the door, his signal to come help with the guests. Right. Tuesday. He had nearly forgotten.

Stupid customers, depriving him of his chance to talk to El.

***

By the time Erik came back to the break room once he’d helped with closing, El was already sitting on the same chair as before, the one next to Erik’s, he noted with some satisfaction. The last cookie sat on his lap on top of a napkin, but El was distracted by something on his phone.

“Hey,” Erik said softly, and El’s eyes shot up abruptly, his right hand falling down to defend the cookie when he discovered who it was.

Erik’s eyebrows flew up into his hair. “You honestly think I’d take it?”

El sighed, in relief or exasperation or maybe something else entirely, Erik couldn’t tell. “No, I’m sorry. Just habit.” He set down his phone on the chair in favor of picking up the napkin with both of his now-free hands. “Your cookies are just that good,” he teased, breaking off a piece and stuffing it in his face with little grace.

Erik glanced down at El’s phone, and noticed that it was open to the Mail app. Who even used email on their phone? He used his laptop like a reasonable person. So much easier to type with a proper keyboard, rather than those tiny little damn icons. They didn’t even make that satisfying click noise. Such a disappointment.

The phone was at an angle, so Erik couldn’t read it easily.

Still … he was curious.

“Who’re you emailing?”

El bit his lip, his hand taking it back faster than Erik had thought he was capable of. “Um, just a friend, that’s all,” he said in a rush, in that way that made Erik damn near certain he was lying.

“Just a friend, huh?”

El sighed. “I don’t know if I like him yet, but he’s nice, and he likes talking to me, and … “

“No, it’s fine. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s not really my business.” Erik gave a casual wave and an easygoing smile before tying his hoodie around his waist and throwing his bag over one shoulder. “See you later.” Erik grabbed the empty cookie container and headed out the door, the bell chiming in mocking tones at him as he left, all of them having Mia’s voice and saying stupid stuff, like that he should have told him that the only person he wanted El to fall for was himself. All stupid stuff. And not true.

Erik kicked at a rock, scowling when it shot into the street, but he didn’t follow it.

He wasn’t jealous. Of course he wasn’t jealous. He couldn’t blame El. He was doing the same exact thing. Except minus the whole maybe-I-like-him part. Okay, so that might have been the same too.

Mia grinned at him through the window as Erik fumbled for his keys in the pocket of the hoodie he wasn’t wearing and would most likely not wear anytime soon (maybe El was right about that). As soon as he walked in, she motioned to his laptop. “You’ve got something from Veronica. Just came in, like, two minutes ago.”

“And you read it already, right?” Erik asked, casting his gaze into the kitchen briefly to check on the cookies. Surprisingly, there was still one left for him.

“Yup.” Mia’s grin became distinctly more wicked. “And I don’t think you’re gonna like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mia has no idea what a pet name is
> 
> The IT crowd is essentially a British nerd fest. There will be pretty much no spoilers or anything that requires knowledge of the show (cuz I don’t possess said knowledge :P I haven't watched very much)!
> 
> The neighbors are Hendrik and Jasper, if the description didn’t give it away. Apparently I’m such a fool over those two that I’m required to have them make an appearance despite the fact that they have zero relevance. I don’t understand it either. Anyway, they will probably actually get a part in a later chapter because of my undying affection for them.
> 
> Please forgive me.
> 
> Updates will be slightly longer now, maybe about one per week!


	3. Chasing It Still

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the other half of the Sniflheim crew makes an appearance, and Erik (finally) does something reasonable!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: *trying to focus on writing*  
> My brain: WE GOT A WHAM BAM SHANG A LANG AND A SHA LA LA LA LA LA THING

_ Hey Astre, _

El and his egg on toast migrated from the second coffee table over to the one in front of the couch. He loved to savor Blue’s emails, and he’d found that the best place to do that was curled up in a blanket-laced bundle, leaning against a pillow on the armrest. So that’s exactly what he did. Breakfast could wait a few minutes.

_ Thanks for telling me about the IT crowd last week. I’m up to the second series (who decided they should have so few episodes? I need to have a word with them). The goth guy is the best character by far. _

_ I still have no idea what to get for my sister’s birthday, but thanks for trying to help. Maybe I’ll ask Gemma about it. I still haven’t asked her about you, so be grateful. I might ask her to tell me some of your stories later. I’ll make her spill stuff you did when you were younger. That’s always a good bet to embarrass people. _

_ You have a coworker who hates you? I think that’s impossible. You seem super sweet. Besides, you said he’s being nicer recently, right? There. My point has been proven for me. Maybe he just thinks you’re hot or something. _

_ Okay, since you spilled that, and it was so personal (by my trust-issue influenced standards), I’m going to say something too. It’s kind of related to what you said. At my part-time job, there’s this really cute guy, and I tease him all the time, but he doesn’t notice that I’m trying to flirt. I guess he’s just that dense. It’s that or he has something against me. I’m hoping for the first one.  _

_ My sister approves of him too. She keeps saying that I should tell him I like him. She also thinks that you’re my boyfriend, so, uh, yeah. That happened. _

_ From what you said, I gathered that you kinda have a crush on this coworker. Don’t ask how I know, I just do. Anyway, if I’m right, I wish you luck. _

_ -Blue _

By the end of the email, El’s face was burning. How did Blue know that he liked Erik when he had just barely figured it out himself? He could’ve sworn that two weeks ago Erik wasn’t nearly as attractive. The way his mouth quirked up when he smirked, how his hair fell into his eyes, how he swept it back, even his damn  _ handwriting _ was doing it now, which was an issue considering that he encountered it every day that both he and Erik were working. And somehow Blue had picked up on it?

Was it really that painfully obvious? Even when all he was doing was talking about how Erik seemed to have a reservation against him?

“Morning, prince,” Jade greeted, her voice coated with sleep in a way that suggested she had only just woken up. “How’s your anonymous email writer?”

El nearly jumped off the couch in his efforts to hide his phone. The last thing he needed was Jade seeing the proof, in Blue’s typed words, that he actually did have feelings for Erik. Even if there was no evidence in there to suggest that it ran deeper than a physical attraction. Which El was starting to think it did. Even so, Jade didn’t need to know.

Erik didn’t need to know either, not when he so clearly had just gotten over his dislike. El wasn’t ready to wreck that yet. He was enjoying talking to Erik too much to stop now. Not to mention that Erik occasionally dropped random little compliments now, which was nice. He had gotten far too attached to their little conversations in passing, just things about Mia and Jade and how their lives were going and topics like that. 

El had even told him about Blue, but not by name. Strangely, Erik said he had something kind of similar, and that Mia loved teasing him about it.

It was the fact that he lost himself in those little details that made him realize he was hopeless.

Blue was super nice too, and there was the added benefit that he didn’t seem to hate him, and somehow they seemed to know each other so well even though they’d only -

“Really, El? I’m only trying to show interest.” Jade rolled her eyes before sauntering into the kitchen to pick up her own piece of toast, still sitting in the toaster oven, butter and jam already spread on it so that all she had to do was take it out.

“I just got distracted,” El called apologetically to the kitchen, but he never heard a response.

Jade didn’t even come back into the living room to eat, instead choosing to stay at the table he had vacated earlier. His abandoned tea mug sat there, pleading for him to return before it went cold, and El sighed, a note of bitterness seeping through. Blue would have to wait. It was probably in his best interests to be on good terms with his roommate anyway, he reminded himself as he walked through the kitchen to get to her.

***

“Hey, El.”

El smiled softly. It was fast becoming one of his favorite greetings. He hadn’t actually found the time to respond to Blue’s email, which wasn’t ideal. He’d forgotten after getting lost browsing on Netflix trying to find the IT crowd so he could decide if Blue was right about the goth character being the best (which he found to be true).

Somehow, when Erik used their simple greeting, it felt a little bit different, but not so much that he minded it. It wasn’t a bad different, just … something else.

“Hey, Erik. Is Mia coming by today?” El asked, already shucking off his jacket. It was February, but it was still cold outside, too cold for El. He couldn’t help but grin at the memory of Blue’s prediction that he got cold easily. Had it really only been two weeks since Gemma gave him Blue’s email? That was astonishing.

“Yeah. Said she’s bringing a few friends, too.” Erik did that little half-smirk thing, and El’s heart skipped a beat involuntarily. “I didn’t know she had friends.”

“Of course she does! She has your social skills. You get along with pretty much everyone. I’m jealous of that,” El admitted, ducking his head as he sat down in his usual chair, the one next to Erik’s.

Erik tilted his head in an odd appraising look that El couldn’t quite identify. “I don’t believe you.”

“You haven’t noticed how much of an introvert I am?”

“But everyone seems to like you. You’re pretty … nice,” Erik argued, hesitating for a moment before adding the last word, as if he was trying to choose the right description for the situation.

“You can’t mean that. You’re nicer than I am.” Never mind that Erik had once been the reason he’d doubted the functionality of everything he owned. El had figured out that he  _ was _ nice, he just didn’t know how to show it sometimes, and he could forgive that easily. He’d made the same mistake himself countless times before. And his water bottle  _ was _ fairly substandard.

“Come  _ on. _ Can’t you two take your eyes off each other for ten seconds?” Veronica close-to-shouted from the counter outside. El knew she was being sarcastic (right???), but left for the door without putting up a fight. He sincerely hoped Erik couldn’t see the blush that he could feel starting to take over his face.

If he’d looked up from his shoes during the Veronica-inflicted walk of shame, he might have noticed that Erik was blushing too.

***

His only indicator of Mia’s arrival was the hibiscus flower on the cup. Usually she came alone. It was a little harder to distinguish her from the crowds when she was with friends, and even more so when she was still in her school clothes.

El silently thanked Erik for the warning, because barely a moment after he saw the flower, Mia screeched to a halt in front of him, behind the glass wall showing the counter to customers.

“El! I brought some friends,” Mia declared proudly. “I had Erik draw them flowers too, so they’ll be here soon. I know you like to  _ speed up _ -” she waggled her fingers mischievously “- my order a little.”

“I’m Krystal,” one of Mia’s friends said, one with an unruly mess of dark blonde hair and a purple backpack hanging dangerously off of one shoulder by a thin strap. “And this is Frys,” she added, pulling over a girl with a light blonde braid and wearing a cream-colored dress and an orange jacket. Krystal draped an arm around her shoulders with a lot of unnecessary drama.

Frys … why did that almost sound familiar … ?

“It’s nice to meet you. El, correct?” Frys asked, her eyes gleaming beneath her round glasses. “We’ve heard a lot about you and Erik.”

“ _ He doesn’t know _ ,” Mia whispered urgently, but not quietly enough to evade El.

“What don’t I know?”

Mia smirked as El passed her hibiscus-decorated cup to her. “A lot of things,” she remarked offhandedly, removing her straw from the cloth bag and promptly stabbing her drink’s cover.

“That’s … really deep,” Krystal said tonelessly, raising one eyebrow at Mia before mentally checking out, her eyes glazing over at some joke he wasn’t in on. It left him uneasy.

El noticed that two of the other drinks in the lineup had flowers as well, and chose those as his next two candidates. One had a little cluster of lilies of the valley, the other, a pansy.

“Did you decide on the flowers?” El handed Frys her drink first, which turned out to be the lilies.

“Nope. Erik picked them.” Mia swirled her straw around disinterestedly, but El was puzzled. Was there some kind of reasoning behind them? Did Erik know flower symbolism or something? That would have been pretty impressive. Maybe if that was the case he’d tell Blue about it.

Blue … 

Noticing that Krystal’s drink had come out of the sealing machine already, El quickly passed it to her, and she gave him a strange look, but didn’t mention it. El turned his attention back to the buildup of cups waiting for him, and a dull guilt gnawed at him at the fact that he’d been ignoring the rest of their customers.

***

Surprisingly, Mia convinced Frys and Krystal to come back with her for closing at six, although it wasn’t all that long considering when they’d come in. Presumably they’d gone to one of the nearby thrift stores to entertain themselves, because when they came back, Frys wore a pair of gold bangles that El could have sworn weren’t there before. Krystal, too, had a ruby circlet draped across her hair, and he hoped that it wouldn’t be too difficult to untangle.

Veronica and Gemma were more than happy to have an impassioned and frustrated discussion with Mia and her friends about … something, El had no idea what. Serena was occupied taking inventory in the main area. Which left only Erik and El.

Not a terrible situation, if you asked him.

Erik threw his arm across the back of El’s chair, his fingers brushing against El’s shoulder, and El’s heart stuttered for absolutely no reason. “Sorry about them, I know they’re a handful sometimes.”

“Really? I thought they were nice.” El thought back on the conversation, trying to recall anything that had stuck out as strange, and finding … almost everything. He wasn’t necessarily opposed to strange, but he could see why Erik might apologize. “Mia said there’s something I don’t know. Could you tell me anything about that?”

Erik’s answering smirk was much softer than usual, and it caused some long-dormant spark in El’s chest to ignite. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

El frowned slightly. “I think Frys said something about you and me?”

Erik’s eyebrows disappeared into the (very soft-looking) hair that was once again falling into his face. “Uh, that’s nothing. Or … I’m not sure what that means.” He ran a hand through his hair, and El suffered a brief but torturous moment of resisting the temptation to brush away Erik’s hand and replace it with his own.

“If you say so,” El murmured, knowing he was lying. The nervous habit with his hair was a giveaway, and El found it obvious. Maybe he had observed Erik’s quirks a little more than most.

Erik’s pale complexion gave away the slightest hint of a blush on his face, and El was struck by the realization that there was barely three inches between their faces, and that he could have done any number of things with their position. The thought alone caused him to blush furiously.

Erik seemed to have made the same discovery, because something made his usually bright blue eyes go a shade darker, and then his hand was at the base of El’s neck, and then his lips were on El’s, soft and hungry.

El’s eyes drifted closed, and he let his lips part the tiniest bit against Erik’s.

Veronica swung into the back room.

Erik pulled away so quickly that all El saw was a blur of blue as they separated. His arm ended up back across El’s shoulders as if nothing had happened.

He was fully expecting to get some kind of Veronica fury unleashed on him, as per usual when he was doing anything at all with Erik. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure why Veronica was so angry about the fact that he liked Erik’s company, but she seemed to have some kind of problem with it. El figured that  _ this _ was more than deserving, whatever this was, and prepared himself for the worst. But she pulled up in front of Erik instead, her heavy-soled sneakers squeaking in protest against the floor.

“What in the name of chocolate cheesecake are you doing?” she hissed, crunching her hand into a fist in his shirt so that he was held captive. “I thought I  _ told _ you it’s never going to work.”

“Whoa, Ronnie, back it up. I wasn’t doing anything,” Erik protested, removing his arm from its place around El’s shoulders in favor of holding up both hands in what was presumably a gesture of innocence. El missed the soft warmth of Erik’s hand, but he couldn’t blame him for wanting to placate Veronica. What she lacked in height, she made up for in willpower, observational skills, and sheer volume.

“Like hell you weren’t.” Mia folded her arms across her chest from her position in the doorframe.

Wait, had she been  _ watching? _

Veronica released Erik’s shirt, and he turned away without sparing a single glance for El, still sitting in the chair and missing the imprint of Erik’s thigh against his. Swinging his bag in a rush, he didn’t even bother to secure it across his other shoulder.

Within the seemingly brief instant it took for El to regain control of his thoughts, Erik was gone, and so were Mia and her friends. The shop bell gave a little twinkling goodbye to Gemma as she walked out, and suddenly El realized that he had stayed much later than usual.

Still, he couldn’t resist.

“Veronica? What was that about?” El asked timidly, not wanting to provoke the anger that he suspected was waiting just under the surface to bubble up again.

She waved a hand dismissively, the silver-set ruby on her middle finger catching the light. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control. He’s just such a fucking  _ idiot! _ ” she growled, slapping her other hand down on the counter. “I can’t help thinking he doesn’t have good intentions.”

“Erik? Why? I don’t think he’d ever do something bad on purpose.”

“You are the most naive, oblivious little shit I’ve ever met.” Veronica stormed out the door, Serena following close on her heels.

El frowned in confusion, but took his bag out from under his chair and left, locking the door of the shop behind him, not bothering to move Serena’s logbook back to where it belonged. At this point, he could’ve left it anywhere, and she was guaranteed to find it come next workday.

***

It wasn’t until after Jade gave him a half-hearted scolding for being late, and after they both finished dinner, and after El had checked on his social media (finding a very frustrated Veronica using a creative combination of contextless swears to express her emotions), that he finally remembered to reply to Blue’s email. Sitting down on the couch, in the exact same curled-up position he had been in that morning, he began typing.

_ Hey Blue, _

_ I’m so sorry for the late reply!! I got distracted watching the IT crowd again, and I agree about the goth character. He’s certainly … interesting. I haven’t seen the series in a while, so I’m rewatching it as well. I think I’m a little behind, but maybe I’ll catch up to you this weekend. _

_ It’s time for me to hope that Gemma respects my privacy, which I honestly have no idea about. Please don’t ask her anything. If you want me to tell you a story about myself, you can just ask me. I don’t have a lot of interesting ones, but I’d be willing to try and remember them for you. Tell her that if she discloses anything, I’m going to spill the story about her first girlfriend. She’ll know the one. _

_ Well, I’m honored that you think I’m sweet, but I’m not sure. He has been a lot nicer to me lately, and he talks to me a lot. My roommate knows how to give me some personal space, so she hasn’t read your emails and doesn’t have any ideas like that about us. _

_ This guy you’re talking about must be really good looking if he’s up to your standards. I hope he notices soon! Have you tried just saying something about it to him? Maybe your sister’s right. _

_ I can’t work out how you figured out that I like him. Honestly, I think you know me better than I know myself. Your good luck must have worked, because today he kissed me? I’m still confused about what happened, but whatever. Good luck to you too. _

_ -Astre _

Suddenly the thought was far too real. Erik had  _ kissed _ him??? That was almost scary.

El debated how much to say about what had happened at work, but he figured that Veronica packing all the anger of a crate of fireworks wasn’t anything new, so it wasn’t worth the space.

The little tap of the send icon didn’t prompt the same flood of anxiety that settled in his stomach that it had before. To the contrary, it felt almost natural now, and he wondered what had changed to make that happen.

“El?” Jade waited a moment before hesitantly gracing the other side of the couch with her presence. “I’m sorry about earlier. Can I make it up to you?”

“If that involves me staying on the couch and you getting the remote, then yes.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Spoiled,” she muttered, but she leaned across the table to get the remote without further complaint. She curled up like a cat in the mirror image of El’s position, throwing him a blanket that landed over his face with a muffled yelp before he yanked it down, scowling at her smug expression.

“You know I can get my own blanket, right?” he asked, his expression betraying him and slipping into a grin.

Jade stuck out her tongue playfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The flowers aren’t actually based on symbolism, they’re just both winter flowers! I thought those two were distinctive enough to draw and / or identify.
> 
> Pretty sure I wrote that kiss at Pre-Caffeine O’Clock, so yeah. Please forgive me. I added that in a sudden flash of inspiration / panic this morning. Rest assured, I will torture them a lot more before they get to do it again. This is FINALLY starting to take shape, which is exciting!


	4. Falling Into Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mia has an idea, which kind of backfires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, handsome reader
> 
> For anyone who's here, the chapter count has officially been updated! Two more to go, folks! Updates should be pretty quick, I'm writing overtime ... not sure if that's a good thing or not ...
> 
> shit's about to go down B)

“What the hell? I thought it was Saturday,” Mia groaned as she stumbled out of her bedroom and into the living room, looking like something straight out of an anti-teenager propaganda advertisement. If that kind of thing existed. Erik imagined they would portray a sleep-deprived grump exactly like Mia for one of those.

“It is, why?” Erik asked, hurriedly clicking the round yellow icon in the top left corner of his browser window to conceal it. Undoubtedly Mia would want to know why he had done that, but hopefully she hadn’t seen.

Mia scowled, swiping his own mug of coffee from the table and taking a sip, scrunching her nose. One of the reasons Erik drank coffee was because Mia had a deep loathing of it. She’d been gradually building up a tolerance over the last year, but it appeared she hadn’t made as much progress as she might have liked. Erik was perfectly willing to buy her tea, and sometimes he even ordered her the expensive darjeeling she loved online.

It wasn’t really a surprise that she liked coming into the bubble tea shop to see him.

“You’re not supposed to wake me up on weekends.” Mia wandered into the kitchen, filling up her favorite mug (the one with a cartoon cat design that Krystal had given her last year) with water and slamming the door of the microwave. The kitchen was soon filled with the low mechanical buzzing of her water heating.

“We have a kettle for a reason,” Erik called after her, but she didn’t seem to hear. Either that, or she was simply ignoring him. Both were fairly likely scenarios. “And I didn’t wake you up on purpose.”

Mia stuck her face out of the cupboard. “Right. You better have some excuse. What, were you emailing your not-boyfriend again or something?” Satisfied with the teabag she had procured, she moved over to the microwave to retrieve her heated water.

While she was distracted, Erik used the opportunity to close the tab he’d dismissed to the dock of his laptop earlier, working as quickly as he could.

Mia came back into the living room faster than he had accounted for, just in time to see him closing the tab with the article about ‘how to show a guy you like him’ he’d been reading. Just for fun. He had no purpose in mind for the article. He definitely wasn’t considering doing some of the things it detailed.

Curse the little animation thingy of the window popping back up.

“Okay, but why were you even reading that?” Mia asked from his right, settling down at the spot across the table from him and placing her mug right next to his in the center of the table.

“No reason,” Erik mumbled, hoping that the guilt didn’t bleed through into his words.

He closed his laptop, and was greeted with the sight of Mia’s feet, clad in fuzzy slippers, propped up on the table, her ankles crossed. He couldn’t even muster the irritation to reprimand her for doing that. Admittedly, they both did it, but at least Erik kept their kitchen table clean, and only put his feet up on the table in front of the couch. Any reasonable person did that, he figured, and so it was acceptable. Plus, he was the one that cleaned the tables off most of the time, so he was allowed to do whatever he wanted beforehand.

“Yeah, right. I’m not _that_ fucking stupid, you know. You could’ve just asked me to help you out with that.” Mia brought her mug up to her lips, flinching when she discovered it was still too hot.

“And you’re suddenly an expert in knowing what boys want?” Erik smirked. “I didn’t think you were interested in guys. Or anyone.”

She shrugged. “So what? I can still help you. I’ve read most of the emails from Astre. I know what he’ll like just as well as you do.”

Erik’s hand froze halfway down to his coffee. That wasn’t even close to what he’d expected.

Mia smirked, packing a surprising amount of wickedness into it. “That’s what I thought.”

“What happened to being on board Team El?” Erik asked, fighting to stay casual.

“Veronica doesn’t like it when you hit on him,” she said simply. “Says she thinks you’ll just take advantage of him. I don’t think you would,” she added hastily when Erik shot her a sleep-infused glare. “But I like being on good terms with her.”

Erik rolled his eyes. “What’re you getting out of it?”

She didn’t even hesitate, holding out her wrist to show off a thin gold bangle with a moonstone at the center. “We have the same taste,” she explained without a trace of shame. “She’s good company, too.”

“I don’t want to know,” Erik muttered. “Anyway, I’m not gonna do anything.”

“Oh yes you are.” Mia glared at him, removing her feet from the table in order to plant both elbows down and look more threatening (an effect which was wasted on Erik). “I was planning on sleeping until, like, ten, but _some_ fucker woke me up. So now you owe me a favor.”

“What are we doing.” Erik’s tone was flat and emotionless, resigned to his fate.

She beamed. “I want to make snickerdoodles.”

A breath that he wasn’t aware of holding escaped him. “Oh. That’s better than I was expecting.”

“I’m not finished. We’re making a full batch. All fuckton of them.” Mia paused to take a sip of her tea, this time not affected by the temperature. “And you’re giving some to your not-boyfriend.”

“I can’t do that,” Erik protested, although he recalled a line in the article about how it was always good to give a guy something you made and internally cursed his 8AM browsing habits. “I don’t know where to deliver them, for one thing.”

Mia rolled her eyes so blatantly that Erik was afraid her eyes would fall out of her sockets. More anti-teen propaganda material right there. It was his own fault, though, seeing as how she’d grown up under his influence. “You both know Gemma, right? If you just _explained_ to her that you want to give him a gift, she’ll probably give you his address. She knows you’re not a serial killer or some shit like that.”

He took a long sip from his coffee mug, pretending to consider. As if it was ever a choice.

“I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Erik sighed heavily before shoving the laptop in her direction and allowing her to open up a new email to Gemma. Surprisingly, she let him type his own response, even leaving to make herself breakfast in the kitchen while he wrote it out. That was unusually considerate of her. Maybe Frysabel was actually teaching her some manners. Although he was pretty sure he saw her making toaster waffles with a generous amount of hazelnut spread and whipped cream, so she hadn’t changed _that_ much.

Shaking his head gently, he started typing out what was possibly the most awkward and stalkery message he’d ever sent.

_Gemma,_

_So you know how you gave out my email to one of your friends? I need a favor, and it’s gonna sound pretty weird._

***

Snickerdoodles were one of the more labor-intensive cookies in Erik's repertoire, so he didn’t make them that often. They were one of his favorites, though, and most people agreed that they were good. His recipe made, as Mia put it, a fuckton of cookies, but hey, that wasn’t a bad thing. It meant that he had a lot of little dough balls to roll out, though, and since he did them all by hand, it was even more time-consuming.

Mia helped, though, which was almost a miracle. It took only a few practice ones for her to get the hang of it, and she was quickly rolling out little cookies almost as good as his. Maybe she’d prove to be a good baker yet.

About halfway through baking the first batch, it started raining outside. The decrease in temperature didn’t bother either of them, though. One of the benefits of having Norwegian heritage. That, and the fact that they both loved fish. Erik wasn’t entirely sure if that was a heritage thing, though, and he also wasn’t entirely sure if that was a benefit.

***

The rain pattered steadily in an incessant rhythm on the pavement as Erik stepped off the bus. Oddly enough, it was the same one that Mia took to get to school - the 7. Granted, it went pretty much everywhere on this side of the city, and it was pretty damn lucky that they lived so close to one of its stops.

Gemma hadn’t asked any questions, which he was grateful for. She had just given him the directions and wished him luck. He wasn’t entirely sure what that was supposed to mean, but he couldn’t bring himself to worry about it much.

He had the numbers on a little sticky note in his pocket, but he didn’t want to take it out. Instead, he repeated the description she’d given in his head.

_It’s an apartment, two floors tall, with two sides of the building. The top is covered in purple bougainvillea, so it should be easy to spot. His apartment is on the right side._

A maps search had revealed that there was also a tree right in front of the building that leaned up to meet the windows, and that it was only three blocks away from one of the bus stops.

Erik’s hoodie was still tied around his waist, even though it was raining. He had an umbrella, so he was fine. He’d shoved on a beanie to cover up his hair, just in case Astre or his roommate knew him and would recognize him without it. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to reveal his identity yet. Blue suited him just fine.

Gemma hadn’t been lying when she said it was easy to spot. The vines climbing up the top floor of the building made it stick out from the others, even though they weren’t in bloom.

Erik took a deep breath and lifted his foot up to the first stair.

The rest were easier after that, and he ascended the stairs quietly enough that he wouldn't disturb anyone in the apartment. He slipped the package Mia had insisted on decorating through the gate, thanking whoever had put the awning over the stairs. The rain didn’t disturb the box at all, and he reached through the gate to leave a note on top of it.

It read, in his own handwriting:

_Hey Astre,_

_You said you like rainy days, right? I thought these might make your day indoors watching sitcoms with your roommate more interesting. Actually, my sister made me do it. Anyway, let me know if you like them. Maybe open them sooner and not later._

_-Blue_

Erik glanced up to the labels on the doorbells, recalling that Astre’s apartment was the lower number. Strangely enough, the label plaques also had some smaller writing underneath. Erik leaned a little closer in order to read them, and noticed that the higher-numbered one had two names on it. _Hendrik + Jasper._ Those must be the neighbors that Astre warned might kill him for knowing about. Erik made a mental note not to speak of them to anyone.

He really should’ve just rung the other bell and left, but Erik couldn’t help himself. His eyes drifted to the other names without his permission, resting on the tiny engraved words.

_El + Jade._

The umbrella nearly fell out of his hand.

He rang the doorbell and left in such a rush that he could feel the wind straining against the fabric of his umbrella at the sudden movement. He rounded the corner as fast as he could. He didn’t take his phone out of the pocket of his jeans to check the bus schedule. That was important, but not anywhere near as important as processing his new discovery.

Erik waited at the bus stop, not even glancing at the times that flashed orange from the little display at the stop. He didn’t register the fact that there was a rain shelter above his head, instead keeping his umbrella unfolded above him without catching any raindrops.

El was Astre.

Holy shit, El was Astre.

***

Erik missed his stop, but that was fine. He had to walk a few extra blocks to get back home, but that was fine. The umbrella in his hand wasn’t actually shielding him from the rain anymore because of the way he was holding it, and he was getting more and more soaked with every step he took, but that was fine.

***

Mia opened the door for him when he knocked, and he thanked his lucky stars for that, because his hands were numb and his keys were sharp in his pocket. He’d probably have dropped them if he tried to unlock it.

“How’d it go?” she asked excitedly, bouncing on her heels a little bit, shifting back and forward so that she could use up some of the near boundless energy she seemed to have accumulated during his absence.

“It went,” Erik muttered. The umbrella snapped shut in his hands, and he shook the water off of it outside of the door, spraying himself with even more water. He had moved beyond caring.

The corner of her mouth twisted up in dissatisfaction. “Not an answer. Did you even do it?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened? You don’t look too good. I mean, you never do, but you look worse than usual.” She plopped herself down on a chair, staring down her nose at him. Erik was suddenly all too aware of the fact that he was standing in the doorway, soaking wet, and that the door was still open. He pulled it shut and took off the beanie and the useless hoodie tied around his waist, having the common sense to hang them up (for once).

It took far too much effort to cross the room to get over to her. The only motivator for him was the laptop sitting on the desk. That was his golden castle full of riches, and Astre’s messages were all shimmering treasures, waiting to be claimed. Although his chair didn’t feel much like a throne, and Mia already had the laptop open, her sparkly red nails clacking against the keys. 

The castle wasn’t his in the first place. Of course it wasn’t.

Veronica’s bangle glinted on her wrist as she clicked through his tabs, trying to find his inbox to see if there was a new message. She frowned upon finding it, her hand on her hip as she turned the laptop towards him.

“Nothing new,” she said. “Did you make sure he got the package?”

“No,” Erik admitted. “I just left it in front of his door and rang the doorbell. It was through the gate, though, so it shouldn’t have been stolen … ?”

“You -” Mia flung a single accusatory finger in his direction, “- are an idiot.”

Erik buried his face in his hands and let out a muffled groan. “I’m aware of that.”

Sliding into the kitchen in a whirlwind of blue braid and tall red socks, she produced a plate laden with the snickerdoodles they’d made earlier. “Spill,” she demanded. “I’ll wait,” she added, shoving a cookie into his hands. Erik lifted his head and ate it silently, hoping desperately that it would scare her off, but to no avail.

He sighed heavily at the look of pure stubbornness in her eyes. “I found out who he is.”

Mia dropped her cookie back onto the plate, where it landed with a small thunk and broke into two pieces, one much smaller than the other. “Shut _up_. Tell me you’re joking.”

Apparently the re-immersion of his face was evidence enough for Mia.

Her eyes lit up with some kind of strange golden glow for a moment, but it faded so quickly that Erik convinced himself that he had only imagined it. “Who is it? Tell me tell me tell me!” she whined, greedily shoveling the broken pieces of her cookie into her mouth while she waited for Erik’s answer, tapping her fingernails impatiently against the tabletop.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? And I mean _anyone_.” Erik glared at her, fully aware that she was going to agree no matter the conditions. He was digging his own grave from the moment he’d said those words. All he could do now was hope that Mia kept her word.

“‘Course I won’t,” she said, in a tone that conveyed the exact opposite.

Erik knew it was a lost cause, knew he was only going to make things worse if he told her, knew that it was a bad idea since she knew him so well, knew that he was being a total jerk for not telling Astre before telling his sister -

“It’s El,” he whispered.

Her fingers stilled in midair, halfway to the table to repeat their drumming. She stared at him, wide-eyed, her deep blue gaze piercing him in a way he hadn’t known it was capable of. Her eyebrows flew halfway up her forehead and stayed there.

Erik waited for her response, but the only sentiment she offered was, “Fuck.”

Erik rolled his eyes. “Don’t I know it.”

To his surprise, she grinned widely. “This means I don’t have to pick a side anymore! I can be on Team El _and_ Team Astre! _Hell_ yes!” she whooped, loud enough that Frysabel probably heard her perfectly clearly from the next house over. Probably the whole damn block, really, but Erik wasn’t keeping track. “El’s working on Tuesday, right?”

“You’re not coming in.”

An alarmingly solid and tangible silence filled the space, seeping into the cracks between them and leaving them both at a loss, stealing the words right out of their throats. Erik could’ve sworn he intended to say something to the effect of _you promised not to tell anyone, remember,_ but it never found its way to her.

Mia was the one to shatter the silence. “If I promise to be really, really good, will you let me go? I won’t even talk to El if you don’t want me to, ‘kay?”

A terrible idea, but Erik was never one to be stopped by potential consequences.

“Fine,” he mumbled, causing Mia to practically squeal with glee, several anything-but-innocent giggles escaping her.

Yeah, a terrible idea.

Mia beamed, tapping another cookie against his nose and dropping it into his waiting hands before leaving with the plate to return it to the cake display (and probably eat a few in secret). She gave a little wave before disappearing back into her room to do … whatever she was doing. Erik could never be completely sure. Checking on social media? Reading something from her latest pile of dystopian novels from the library? Restoring shoes she’d thrifted to sell? Cataloguing all her jewelry and designer clothes in a leather-bound notebook?

Erik tugged the laptop over to face him, noting that the last message was one from Astre - _El._ Maybe that was why he hadn’t responded yet. He opened up a new draft and let his hands do all the hard work, because he sure as hell didn’t know how to say this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What am I doing
> 
> Here, take my sincerest apologies, and a reassurance that El will suffer a bit more.
> 
> Can you tell how much food I want while writing these? Seriously, I need to stop making these chapters revolve around food. Why am I like this.
> 
> You'd be alarmed at how many times I've listened to 'Shrek 2 Trumpet Scene MeoplleX Remix'


	5. Just Out Of Reach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El suffers, with the assistance of Jade, Hendrik and Jasper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hendrik and Jasper are just ... I'm sorry.
> 
> Enjoy my best efforts to channel them.
> 
> I am now the princess of quick uploads. Woah. I'm just stalling because I don't want to write my introduction essays for school. It's only Wednesday and I'm already procrastinating.

_ Hey Astre, _

El glanced up from his phone all too soon, ripped away from the new email by a disturbance from the dining room, and was greeted with the sight of Jade trying to evaluate the difference between two chairs. “Need some help?” he called towards her.

“No, I don’t,” she huffed.

El dropped his phone back into his lap the second he saw her walking confidently into the living room with a chair under each arm. She didn’t look like their weight bothered her at all: to the contrary, it was almost as if they were extensions of her own arms (that would at least explain how she wasn’t crashing into everything). El wouldn’t have attempted to carry more than one, but apparently Jade prioritized efficiency over her own arms. That, or she had been training at the gym again. It was likely a combination of both.

Both chairs were set on the floor at the exact same time (furthering his theory about them being simply a part of her, because he was fairly certain  _ he _ couldn’t have done that), and Jade repositioned them around the coffee table so that both of the chairs faced the table and their TV positioned in front of it.

El offered his input from his vantage point on the couch in the form of a simple thumbs-up. “Are we eating out here or something?” he asked, motioning in the direction of the chairs she had placed.

Jade batted away her sideswept bangs with a trace of annoyance, but he knew it was directed at her hair rather than at his question. “Didn’t I tell you? I invited Hendrik and Jasper. They’re coming over around ten.”

“Why? What happened to doing nothing all weekend?” El furrowed his brow. He’d been planning to catch up to Blue on the IT crowd, but he still wasn’t quite sure why he was reacting so strongly. They were fairly good company, all things considered, and they were always willing to talk.

Jade smirked. “I happen to like socializing, to some degree. You can watch a movie or something while they’re here. I don’t think they’ll mind.” She swept her hands across the table, gathering up the few coasters they kept out and compiling them into a neat stack in the center. El couldn’t work out why she cleaned up when Hendrik and Jasper were coming over. It wasn’t like they would judge her for having a disorganized house. Well, Hendrik wouldn’t, at least.

“Alright,” he said, fumbling around for his phone and finding it at his knees. He had no recollection of anything that could have pushed it down that far, but maybe he was just forgetting. The fresh rain pattered steadily against the windows, echoing softly through the room, providing a strange sense of comfort that he couldn’t explain.

He picked up right where he’d left off without a second thought for the conversation. It was a perfectly normal occurrence for Hendrik and Jasper to come over. He didn’t see any particular reason for it. Just a normal weekend day, right?

_ Any news on the guy-at-your-work front? I’m not sure how often you see each other, but if anything happens, I want to hear about it. It’s nice to know that there’s other people struggling with attempting to drop hints the same way I am. Sorry if that came out wrong. Anyway, it’s validating. That came out wrong too. Fuck. Forget I said that. _

_ Life’s been pretty boring for me lately, other than the weird thing that happened on Tuesday I told you about. Sorry that I’m sending this at, like, midnight. I don’t know what time you go to sleep, but that’s late for me. I usually get up early-ish, which annoys my sister. It’s for the best, though, because her school starts early and I have to wake her up anyway. _

_ Speaking of my sister, she’s still not letting go of the idea that you’re my boyfriend. She’s reading every single email. I’m sure she’s gonna read this tomorrow morning, but I don’t care enough to take that out. _

_ You said you’re going to catch up to me this weekend, right? I won’t watch any. That’ll give you a chance. My sister likes it a lot too, and she says thanks. _

_ Tomorrow I’m going to pay for this with a lot of coffee. I’m sorry in advance for whatever I end up doing. _

_ -Blue _

El checked the timestamp, and saw that it had been sent at 12:09 AM that morning. Maybe Blue’s sister was already reading that. He chuckled at the mental image of her (he imagined that she was sassy and a little bit on the short side) scrolling through his past messages, hiding from her brother and checking for him every few minutes.

_ Hey Blue, _

_ Nothing to report. I don’t think he likes me, but it’s still nice when we get to talk. I’m probably shoveling the dirt on top of my heart already. I’ll try my best not to get my hopes up. _

_ The only thing of note that happened recently was that Gemma told me we’ve met before. I can’t stop wondering if you’re someone I've known for years, but I don’t think you are. When she gave me your email, she said that you were ‘ someone I should meet '. I don’t think that would apply to a person I know well. _

_ Today my roommate invited our neighbors over, so please wish me luck. _

_ Just kidding, I’m sure I’ll have fun. I was planning on watching alone all day, so they’re going to help me feel less like I’m being antisocial today. _

_ Sometimes I used to think about this kind of situation. I never thought I would be the one in it, though. Usually anonymity isn’t my thing. I like meeting people in person, but you seem to know me almost as well as anyone else I know. It’s strange … it makes me want to ask Gemma about you even more. Did she know that we’d end up like this? _

_ -Astre _

Conveniently, he didn’t specify what ‘like this’ entailed. Blue could make his own decision on that matter, and his sister would have a field day with that line. He felt a small pang of guilt at the thought that he might be subjected to more of her assumptions. Emphasis on small. He was well-intentioned, and she seemed like a lot of fun underneath all her layers of teasing. If she was going to do it anyway, he might as well make it a little easier for her.

There wasn’t any other reason for that. Of course not. Just for his sister.

Someday, maybe he could meet her. She seemed like the kind of person he’d get along with. He was almost a younger sibling himself, considering how Jade managed the apartment.

Down the hallway, he could hear her tugging her hairbrush through her tangled locks. She would probably be at it for another ten minutes, considering the length of her glossy black hair, but it was worth it. When her hair was pulled up in a simple ponytail, she looked perfect. At least, El thought so. She always let his compliments slide off of her, but he knew that they meant more to her than she let on. The liberal amounts of leave-in conditioner she used gave it away.

***

El wasted an hour or so on Netflix. If he was sacrificing his late morning to whatever Jade was planning, he could at least get in a good amount of his ideal weekend. Hendrik and Jasper couldn’t deplete their snack supply if he did it first.

***

Ten came far too quickly, and with it came Jade’s mild anger that he’d consumed half a bag of potato chips in one sitting. She couldn’t put up a valid argument for why she was angry other than that, so she let it go.

The doorbell was his true savior, though.

The sparkles in Jade’s midnight-dark nail polish caught the light as she twisted the doorknob. She stepped out of the door, leaning down to pick something up, and she stared vacantly down the stairs, almost like she’d seen a ghost there and was certain it was merely invisible, determined to wait it out. But the spell was soon broken, and she practically ran down the stairs, boots clicking against the steps in protest at the sudden strain.

She was back momentarily, her mouth scrunched in a familiar distaste. El knew what it meant without any explanation.

They’d left after all, and Jade had spent too much time dwelling on it to catch them.

“Jade? There I was thinking you were far too dignified to go running down stairs.” Jasper lazily flicked his bangs out of his eyes. They were getting long. He usually didn’t let them any longer than chin-length, and they were toeing the line. “In the rain, no less. That’ll do horrendous things to your hair.”

Jade glared at him, but El knew it was the same kind of glare that she gave him when she was trying to pretend to be frustrated. “I’m aware of that,” she snapped, raking her fingers through the ends of her ponytail.

“Good morning to you too,” El added, giving a small wave to Hendrik, standing in the doorway and looking like he had no clue what was going on, which was probably the case.

“You didn’t happen to see anything just now, did you? Someone rang our doorbell,” Jade explained, holding out the package in her hands that El hadn't really taken notice of until now. It was just a box wrapped in what looked to be brown paper, with a little bow tied in pale blue ribbon. He scanned the parcel, but there was nothing to indicate who it was for, except for a little note tucked under the ribbon. He slipped it out, unfolding the paper and noticing words written neatly in a strangely familiar script.

_ Hey Astre, _

_ You said you like rainy days, right? I thought these might make your day indoors watching sitcoms with your roommate more interesting. Actually, my sister made me do it. Anyway, let me know if you like them. Maybe open them sooner and not later. _

_ -Blue _

Wait, Blue was here? And he didn’t even notice?

El cleared his throat awkwardly. “It’s, um, it’s for me.” Jade looked suspicious, but handed him the box despite her clear hesitations, following him back inside as he sat down on the couch, setting the box on the table in front of him.

“How are you so sure of this?” Hendrik frowned at the note El still held onto tightly.

“It’s from my email friend.” A look of comprehension dawned over Jade’s face, but the slight frown seasoned with a generous dash of suspicion didn’t fade. “I don’t know where he got my address, but I know it’s from him.”

“Does that not make you concerned?” Hendrik asked, something desperate in his tone, but El wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or Jade, so he felt no need to answer. Apparently Jade had come to the same conclusion, because nobody offered their wisdom. Either that, or neither of them were willing to admit that they didn’t care.

“What is it?” Jade pried the ribbon from his hands, carefully tracing it through the bow and untying it so that it was preserved perfectly for future use, or for El to save and keep on his desk to fidget with when he was feeling anxious. Probably the latter.

The paper didn’t get the same courtesy, and Jasper’s nose scrunched in distaste when El ripped it off out of impatience.

“It’s … he made me cookies,” El mumbled, staring at the little container full of snickerdoodles. There had to be at least two dozen in there. Had Blue really made all those for him … ?

“That’s nice of him.” Jade toyed with the ribbon subconsciously, staring at the box’s contents with some kind of emotion that El couldn’t place. Was she just hungry?

Jasper’s eyebrows were raised, a sure sign that he didn’t want to let on whatever positive emotion he was feeling. “And who is this again?”

“I don’t know. He’s one of Gemma’s friends. I call him Blue.” El let his eyes skim over all of the cookies, and he selected one from the center. It melted in his mouth, and it was even still warm. He didn’t know anyone who made cookies like that, did he? He’d probably only met Blue in passing, and Gemma only remembered because she knew him. He doubted he’d remember every one of her friends that he’d met over the years, but she would. Yeah, that was probably it.

“You can have some,” he added, motioning towards the open container as he took another.

That was all the permission they needed.

“They’re better than I was expecting,” Jasper said softly, turning the cookie over appraisingly in his hands.

Hendrik gave a little half-smile, which El was starting to believe was all he was capable of offering, what with his resting angry face. “He just doesn’t want to admit that he’s impressed.”

Jasper scowled.

Jade only rolled her eyes in response, flicking the end of his ponytail playfully. “Your reputation doesn’t have to follow you here, Jasper,” she said as she vanished into the kitchen, reappearing momentarily with a French press full of iced tea and four glasses.

“No alcohol?”

“It’s fucking  _ ten AM, _ Hendrik.” Jade shoved the pitcher towards him. He poured it without further complaint, apparently seeing the wisdom in her words, or at the very least having the dignity to pretend he did.

Jasper drained a third of his glass in one drawn-out sip, making a satisfying clink as it connected with the table. “Same as ever, Jade. You don’t know how to enjoy life properly.”

“ _ You - _ ” Jade flung a single finger at Hendrik, the others still holding onto the tea in her hand that El was becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of, “- are a bad influence.”

“That is not the topic at hand. Jade, you called us here for a reason?”

“I did.” The click of Jade’s nails against hard plastic was odd, and it took El a good few seconds to realize that the sound had been issued by his phone case, and another embarrassingly long amount of time to realize that she held El’s unlocked phone in her taloned grasp. His heart sank as she swiped through his open apps and found his email open to his various interactions with Blue.

This was not going in the direction that he had intended.

“So,” Jade started, a twinkle in her eyes that could mean nothing good, “Jasper was right.”

Jasper smirked. “I’m always right. Didn’t I ever tell you that I’m the more intelligent one?”

“What are you … “ Snatching his phone back, El cast a curious glance in Hendrik’s direction, and found him digging through his wallet. The email that was open was the one he’d sent earlier that week, the one in which Blue had figured out he liked Erik. He swallowed hard at the thought of Jade reading it and he wished, once again, that she was less protective. Maybe she was more like a sister than he’d originally thought.

Thank whoever was watching over him that she wasn’t reading the one with the kiss.

“They had a bet. Hendrik was for Blue, Jasper for Erik.”

Oh. Because of course they did. Hendrik and Jasper never played it safe. El should have remembered their odd tendencies for challenging the other. It wasn’t all that much of a surprise.

“You - you told them? And you read the emails?”

Jade nodded shamelessly. “What are roommates for?”

“You’re supposed to pay half the rent! Not intrude in my personal life!” El hissed.

She shrugged, swirling her tea around the glass disinterestedly. “If you wanted it to be private, you should’ve made your automatic lock time shorter. What can I say? Am I supposed to resist the opportunity?”

“If I may interrupt,” Hendrik turned to face El, two twenties from his wallet already sacrificed to Jasper, who was folding them into thirds and creasing them neatly with his manicured nails, “it was Jasper who suggested that Jade read them, and that is not her fault - “

“Is that the game you’re playing now, Hendrik? Throwing me under the bus?” Jasper’s eyes didn’t even leave the bills in his hands, but his tone was just as cutting as his golden gaze could be when he wielded it properly. El took a moment to marvel at that before he realized that it was, in fact, Jasper’s fault that his roommate now had evidence of his feelings for Erik, something she’d been theorizing about for … a longer amount of time than he was comfortable with.

Hendrik averted his eyes sheepishly, gaze fixated on his feet.

“You’re such a buffoon,” Jasper murmured, shaking his head softly, causing the waterfall of his blond ponytail to swish back and forth gently in a mesmerizing display. Maybe El should grow his hair out too, if it would look that good. His wasn’t quite long enough to make a high ponytail. He could make one at the base of his neck, but it was just so  _ short _ that it looked kind of -

“Not right now. Please, spare us.” Jade rolled her eyes at Jasper, who hadn’t done anything?

Oh. Okay. No displays of affection in Jade’s Good Clean Apartment.

“How’d you know I talked about Erik in those letters?”

A small smile crossed Jade’s lips, and she did that little head-tilt thing that meant she was satisfied with herself. “I didn’t. Jasper did.”

El stared blankly at Jasper, silently demanding an answer. The level of knowledge he had about El’s love life was alarming.

“I know people,” he said, which wasn’t an answer at all, and explained absolutely nothing. El glared, and he relented. “His sister is … charismatic. She was all too easy to get information from. I don’t make bets lightly.”

“I- He doesn’t like me like that … “ El wished that their carpet was more interesting. It would offer a valid excuse for his refusal to look up. “I don’t think he even likes me as a friend much.”

Jasper flicked his hand carelessly, and the silver and gold band on his finger glinted in the light, sparkling mischievously. El had always found it a little bit odd that their wedding rings didn’t match, but somehow they worked. “Think what you will,” was the only fragment of wisdom he offered before he brought out the package of a movie from … somewhere. Hopefully his pocket.

“Knives Out,” he explained at Jade’s curious glance, showing her the sleeve of the disc.

“No Saturday morning is complete without a healthy dose of murder,” she agreed, popping another snickerdoodle into her mouth.

***

It wasn’t until after lunch that Hendrik and Jasper returned to their own apartment, deciding that Jade’s no-making-out rule was unfair. El was a little bit sad to see them go, even though he’d been less than enthusiastic at the thought of them interrupting his day of flopping on the couch. Still, they were fun to be around, predictions about his kind-of sort-of maybe crush or no.

The new message from Blue wasn’t unexpected: in fact, it was a relief that someone was giving him a proper explanation. At least, he hoped that’s what it was. El didn’t know if he could take much more of the odd things that had been happening all day. He still had to thank Blue for the cookies, and tell him that Jasper, the closet sweets aficionado, thought they were good, and tell him about the shit that had been hitting the fan all morning.

It was shorter than usual, and El wondered why that was, but he read it anyway without giving it much thought.

_ Hey Astre, _

_ By now, you’ve probably opened the package from me. I hope you like them. As stated on the note, it’s all my sister’s fault. _

_ I got your address from Gemma, in case you were wondering. _

_ There’s no good way to say this, but I’ll try. I found out who you are. The label on the doorbells said that you’re El. Is that right? If so, we know each other in real life. I didn’t mean to find out, I swear, it just kinda happened. I’m sorry. _

_ I also learned your neighbor’s names, so I guess you and me must be at the top of their most wanted list by now. _

_ Please tell me your neighbors didn’t eat all of the cookies I made. I guess I did give you a lot, though, so maybe that’s not so bad. I still think you’d be up to the challenge of eating them all. _

_ -Blue _

What the fuck was up with this day?

_ You’re El. We know each other in real life. _

It could be worse.

Blue knowing his identity wasn’t that bad. In some ways, it was nice. He didn’t have to keep lying anymore, and he could just use the names of people he’d been referring to in his emails.

But … Blue was one step ahead of him. Blue had figured it out. Blue saw the bigger picture. He knew virtually nothing about Blue, aside from a few facts. He had a sister, baked cookies, and didn’t like his neighbors. Things that were useless when it came to finding him.

El set down his phone on the little table by his bed, not even turning it off before he fell face-first into the pillows, letting them muffle a drawn-out, frustrated groan that came unbidden from the back of his throat.

He knew full well it wasn’t a game, but he couldn’t help feeling like he’d lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love those two idiots to death but I find them very difficult to write. That said, please please please tell me if you liked them! Or if I should never try to write them again because it was terrible!
> 
> Mia & Jasper friendship is great, change my mind. Heh. Spoiler alert, you can’t change my mind.
> 
> I had this vision of Jasper singing Burn from Hamilton when Hendrik and El meet him at the castle in early act 2. Think about it … “you have torn it all apart, I’m watching it burn” except by ‘it’ he means Erdrea cuz he’s so dramatic. Ending with “I hope that you burn”? Of course.


	6. Hey Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which these two dumbasses finally get the ending they deserve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Folks, please stay seated, and keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Buckle up. This is gonna be a wild ride.
> 
> The POV does get a little funky in this. There is a single switch in the middle of the chapter, but it shouldn't be too confusing!
> 
> Warning: I'm still incapable of writing kisses. 'Tis but one of my mortal flaws. Maybe I need to go make out with some more guys once all this pandemic stuff is over. Y'know. For the sake of improving my writing.

“You look terrible.” Mia practically flung herself into the chair across from Erik, where his hands were buried in his laptop, and his mouth was buried in a mug of coffee. “Seriously, Erik, what is  _ with _ you lately? Have you eaten anything?”

Erik shook his head, eyes not leaving the laptop, fingers still dancing across the keys mercilessly before their waltz was cut off and removed from memory by the delete key in the upper right.

She sighed heavily. “Look, you gotta eat. If you don’t say anything in the next ten seconds, I’m toasting you a bagel.”

Erik didn’t say anything.

It wasn't right. None of it was right. He just couldn’t get it right for some reason. It wasn’t for lack of effort, certainly: he’d tried to rephrase it a hundred times over the last hour, hell, the last three days. Ever since he found out that Astre was El. Still, Erik knew something was missing from it, no matter how many times he rewrote the message glaring at him from his drafts. The only message in his drafts, actually, which just served to make it stand out more.

He never overthought like this, dammit. He did things. He didn’t think about them.

Maybe that wasn’t the best method, but at the very least, it avoided getting sucked into this kind of whirlpool, stuck at the center of the spiral until he finally got pulled under, or until he found something to grab onto to make his way out.

Erik pressed the heels of his palms into his closed eyes.

“What’re you trying to do, anyway?” Mia asked, peering over his shoulder as she set a buttered half bagel on a plate in front of him. He took it with a muttered thanks and wondered where she had learned to be so perceptive. Was he just that obvious?

“Drafting something.” Erik drowned any further words in coffee, preventing himself from having to elaborate. Temporarily.

Mia bit into her own bagel with a small, hollow  _ crunch _ . “About El, right?”

Caught off guard, Erik could only nod.

“Okay. Take me through what you’re doing. I know him too, I’ll help.” She propped her elbows up on the table, resting her chin in her hands above them, and he knew she meant business.

There was no getting out of this one, not with how Mia’s eyes had that determined glow in them that was actually a lot more threatening than he cared to admit.

“I want to tell him that I’ll meet him today. At work. But I want to make it sound like I’ll be a customer so he doesn’t get suspicious before I’m there.”

Mia grinned. Widely. Beamed, even. “That’s fuckin’ perfect. Okay, so what if you had some kind of sign with you? Like, you could say you’re gonna be wearing something, and after the shift’s over you can show him that you’re wearing it.” Suddenly, she leapt up, vanishing into her room, the door swinging shut behind her so Erik had no idea what she was doing. He almost called after her, but thought better about it after only a moment of consideration. Mia had her methods, and he wasn’t about to question them.

She didn’t hesitate to sprint back towards him, shouting “Here!” as she went, holding something in her hand that was a vague blur of pink and green.

Erik had a bad feeling about this.

“Uh, Mia? Where did you get that?”

She shrugged. “Frys asked me to keep them safe for her and bring them in today, but she said I could have one.” At this, she shoved her hands forward, revealing a pale pink rose. “I don’t need it. And you do.”

Twirling the (thankfully thornless) flower in between his fingers, Erik glanced up at Mia, noticing that she had that strange golden glint in her eyes again. Where had she gotten that? He certainly didn’t have any kind of golden-eyed expressions. Did Krystal give her a pair of contacts or something? She did wear them … but wouldn’t they be prescription lenses? “I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

She rolled her eyes, which weren’t at all golden anymore (was he seeing things? He should really start wearing his glasses when he was reading on his computer). “You’re gonna wear it, dumbass. El’s a romantic guy, he’ll eat that shit up.”

The only response Erik offered was a single raised eyebrow.

Mia impatiently tugged the laptop over to her side of the table, her fingers flying across the keyboard for a short few seconds, her somewhat chipped red nail polish becoming a blur above the letter icons. Later she’d probably ask for him to help repaint them.

“Change it, make it your style, whatever.” She scooted the plate in front of him closer to him, the one containing the still-uneaten bagel. “You’re hopeless. Consider yourself lucky that I give a shit about you.” She vanished into the kitchen, and he heard the microwave going again. He didn’t even bother to remind her about the kettle. He knew full well that it was useless.

Erik scanned the few sentences she had slapped out.

_ I want to meet you. I can be there while you’re working today. I’ll wear a pink rose in my hair, and I won’t be with anyone else. _

She was smarter than Erik gave her credit for. Either that, or he was just exceedingly stupid. Probably both.

It needed some major changes, anyway. She may have had a good idea, but she didn’t have his flair at all. This was why she was so terrible at prank calls. Erik could recognize the little details of a person’s actions, the patterns, and turn them into something tangible. Mia, on the other hand, was obviously intelligent, but she didn’t get those same observational notions that he did. Maybe in a past life he’d needed them, and she hadn’t.

_ Hey El, _

_ It’s kinda unfair that I know who you are, and you don’t know me. So I was thinking, it’s about time that changed. _

_ I can meet you while you’re at work today. I’ll be there during regular hours, probably in the afternoon. You’ll be able to spot me because I’ll have a pink rose in my hair. I know there will be some other people there with that same description, so here’s a few things to help. One: I’m a guy. Two: I have fabulous hair, as previously established. Three: I won’t have a date with me or anything. _

_ Could you reply if that works for you? And if you don’t want to meet me yet, that’s okay. I won’t be offended. _

_ -Blue _

Much better.

Mia leaned an arm over the back of his chair, startling him. “Yeah, I guess that works.” She took a sip from the mug of tea in her other hand, wincing as soon as she did. “Yup, that’s hot,” she muttered, pursing her lips.

“You want to do the honors?” Erik asked dryly, motioning towards the laptop, the cursor floating over the send button.

She grinned as her finger hovered above the trackpad. “Hell yes.”

Erik would never, ever tell her, but in that moment, he was so grateful that he didn’t have to be the one to send it that he almost forgave her for convincing him to do something that was so obviously a bad idea that even he could see it. Maybe she really wasn’t the more intelligent one. Maybe they were both just complete idiots.

If this was what being complete idiots felt like, he felt sorry for whoever hadn’t experienced it in their lifetime.

***

“I thought it was illegal to be cheerful on Monday mornings,” Jade groaned, practically stumbling into the kitchen to retrieve the cup of tea El had made for himself but didn’t have the heart to tell her was intended to be his.

El glanced up from his phone, still open to the exact same page it had been for the past … however long. If Jade was awake already, it had to be a lot longer than he was willing to admit. “It’s Tuesday.”

“Same difference.” She shot him what was probably supposed to be a glare, but came out more like venom diluted with milk.

“I’ll stay on the couch, and you can eat at the table.”

Jade blinked for several seconds, screwing her eyes shut and then opening them forcefully. “That works.”

A victory for him. That gave him plenty of space to be as elated as he wanted. He was on top of the world, he was finally going to find out who Blue was, he was finally going to meet him, they were finally going to be on even footing with each other. Not that he had judged himself for not figuring it out first. Okay, maybe just a little.

More than he should have. El left it at that.

_ Hey Blue, _

_ That sounds great! I can’t wait to meet you. Afternoon is good, I normally work from noon until six, but I’ll make sure to be running the counter starting at three. You probably already know, but I’m usually at the end, handing out drinks. _

_ I will be keeping an eye out for fabulous hair graced by a pink rose. _

_ If you know where I work, you probably know who the guy I like is too. If you see him, could you maybe not mention it to him? I don’t want to force him into it. _

_ -El _

_ p.s. I know I’m El, but it still feels a little bit weird to sign them something other than Astre. I used that because it’s my middle name. _

Tap, whoosh. And that was it. Gone to somewhere high up in the sky, and on its way to Blue.

He’d never actually told anyone his middle name before, except Gemma, who knew solely because she’d known him in grade school and his mother had used it once when she got angry at the two of them for accidentally piercing one of her car’s tires. There were a few other occasions where she’d gotten mad, but that was the one that stuck with him for some reason.

***

El tried to focus on other stuff, he really did. He watched a Wes Anderson movie that he’d been meaning to see. He stuffed his face with Jade’s low-calorie popcorn. He made himself a large plate of scrambled eggs with green onions for lunch because he was feeling lazy. He tried in vain to do anything but think about Blue.

The only problem was that once he’d opened up his social media, he noticed that it was the second Tuesday of February, and it just happened to be the fourteenth.

There was no way he could keep that off his mind.

Blue wanted to meet him on Valentine’s Day.

***

Apparently El was the only one who’d forgotten about the holiday, because as soon as he opened the door, he was hit by a wave of decorations. Not literally, but it was clear that everyone else had remembered.

Now that he looked around, it wasn’t too bad. There was a small explosion of pink, red, and white trails of crepe paper across the menu mounted on the wall, and a bouquet of white roses by the cash register but other than that, it wasn’t all that dramatic. Not as overstated as he’d first thought.

“Ugh, really?” Veronica whined from the back room, and El rushed in to relieve her of whatever was annoying her before she went on a potential murdering spree. “Do I have to?”

“Oh, Veronica! You  _ do _ look wonderful.” Serena beamed as El pushed open the door, and was met with a sight he thought he’d never see: Veronica, wearing a vibrant red spaghetti-strap dress with a skirt that didn’t even reach her knees. A skirt wasn’t unusual for her, but she always wore them with leggings underneath, and rarely showed her shoulders.

“I hate it,” Veronica grumbled, shooting a giggling Gemma a dirty look.

Serena pouted. “But they match!” she said brightly, motioning at her own outfit.

It was only then that El noticed Serena wearing a similar dress in pale pink that somehow looked much more decent. The straps were the same, the skirt was the same, but Serena frequently wore tank tops or shorts, so maybe it was just that he was used to it. Gemma, too, had abandoned her favorite pair of acid-washed cuffed jeans in favor of a white skirt.

“Whoa!” Erik’s eyes widened dramatically at the scene as he walked in, his grip loosening and his bag slipping out of his hand onto the floor with a small  _ thunk _ . That was probably his water bottle. Hopefully it wasn’t dented … “Uh, Ronnie? What happened to you?”

“ _ These two _ happened,” she growled, her hands tightening into fists.

“You can wear a jacket over it, Veronica,” El pointed out hurriedly, and Veronica’s anger deflated slightly, to his great relief. “And you’ll be behind the counter anyway, so the skirt doesn’t matter much.”

Rummaging through her bag, Veronica pulled out her light blue denim jacket and threw it on over the red dress as fast as she could.

“Hmm … that’s good as well,” Gemma declared, and that was that. Serena frowned slightly, but apparently she saw that her sister wasn’t going to budge, because she didn’t raise any objections. Erik’s eyebrows hadn’t returned from their lofty position covered by the hair falling into his eyes ( _ again, _ did he do that on purpose?).

***

The afternoon passed without much incident, which was concerning in itself. It should have been full of incident, seeing as how Blue was supposed to meet him today, but it wasn’t.

As promised, El kept a lookout for anyone with a pink rose in their hair. He watched the names on the drinks like a hawk, waiting to stumble across one marked with ‘Blue’ in Erik’s handwriting, but nothing came. Everyone with a rose was with someone else, and hadn’t Blue said he’d be alone? Without a date? Besides, none of them had what he’d call ‘fabulous’ hair. Blue was probably exaggerating on that note, though.

Thankfully, Mia came in later in the afternoon, which was a good distraction.

El picked up the hibiscus-marked cup from the sealing machine, scanning the label.

“Again?” El asked, sliding her the drink, which was the same one she’d gotten the last two trips - peach, pomegranate and rose.

Mia shrugged. “It’s good. I like it.”

“Roses are in theme today.” El scrunched his nose in fake distaste, and she let out a small snort of laughter. They shared the same opinion of the decorations, then.

“I noticed.” She lazily swirled a few tapioca balls around the cup, not daring to disturb the ones that slumbered at the base of the drink. “Have any plans today? Y’know, it’s Valentines and all. Frys and Krystal ditched me to go on a date.” She took a long sip, and El watched several bobas migrate up her straw. “So I thought I’d go bother Erik.”

“As all good siblings do,” El agreed, earning one of her signature sparkling smiles, the kind that she didn’t give away easily. “I don’t really have any plans.”

“Nothing?” she asked, putting on her most innocent face.

El flushed under her gaze. “Um, I’m meeting someone, but he hasn’t shown yet … “

Mia only offered him a grin laced with a generous amount of satisfaction. “He’ll be here soon. I know he won’t stand you up.” And with that, she was gone, making a beeline to talk to Erik. El understood that. Mia wasn’t  _ his _ sister, after all, no matter how well they got along or how much he wished she was. He’d wondered about that more than once, about what it would be like to be related to Mia. Of course, he liked that scenario partly because it involved dating Erik. Not that he’d ever tell anyone that.

If his eyes strayed over to the pair of blue-haired siblings talking by the front of the fading afternoon rush a few times, or more than a few times, that wasn’t his fault.

Sometimes they were even looking back, but their eyes were off of him so quickly that El convinced himself he imagined it.

***

Blue didn’t show up.

El sat down heavily, but he knew it had nothing to do with his own weight and everything to do with the lack of Blues that he’d seen. Had he really missed him? For the second time, no less?

He barely even noticed when Erik took the seat next to him. Usually that little gesture was enough to take his mind off of whatever was wrong, but apparently today’s problem was a little bit too advanced for something as simple as Erik’s company to fix.

“Hey,” Erik said softly, his fingertips brushing against El’s jawline as he gently tilted El’s chin up to look him in the eye.

El allowed his gaze to wander upwards and meet Erik’s searching sea-blue gaze. He tried to prevent it from lingering on the way, but it couldn't be helped. Still, a pang of guilt struck him when he did, despite the fact that Erik didn’t seem to have a problem with it. After all, he’d taken off his shirt in front of El without any hesitations more times than he could count. Why would this be any different?

Erik blushed as El finally dragged his eyes away from the somewhat forbidden sight, as if he knew exactly what had been going through El’s mind. Which was nothing.

When El looked up, he was met with another sight that stole his breath away.

A single pink rose was tucked behind his ear, contrasting violently with his vibrant hair. 

El couldn’t do anything but stare, hopelessly mesmerized by Erik’s eyes.

Blue. They were so brilliantly blue.

El couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t bring himself to tear his gaze away, as Erik shyly ducked his head, his hand shooting up to his hair, running his fingers nervously through the spikes, managing to avoid the flower.

“So, uh, yeah,” Erik mumbled, and suddenly they were both giggling uncontrollably.

Erik was far too close, and all El could see was the way his eyes glimmered, the way his hair begged for El’s fingers to tangle into, the way his mouth looked so soft and tempting.

El leaned in and pressed his lips into Erik’s. 

He heard a sharp intake of breath, but he let his fingertips trail across the underside of Erik’s chin, and Erik softened, melting into his touch.

Forgetting completely that they were in the back room of the shop, where one of their coworkers could walk in on them at any moment, El allowed his lips to part, his tongue to trace the outline of Erik’s lips, drawing a soft gasp and a breathed “Fuck,” from him.

El pulled away at that. Obviously he’d made a mistake, or misread the situation, or something else to that effect. Obviously. He half-expected Erik to shove him away, to shout at him, to swear never to talk to him again.

What he didn’t expect was for Erik to slide into his lap, wrap his legs around El’s waist, and kiss him back with something close to desperation, like he’d been given something he wanted badly and might never have again.

El didn’t tell him that he could have this particular gift whenever he wanted.

He certainly wasn’t complaining. If the universe wanted to give him a lapful of adorable boy making out with him, he wasn’t about to say no.

“Ugh, I can  _ finally _ take off this stupid -  _ what the fuck? _ ”

Erik turned around without getting up from El’s lap and smirked in Veronica’s direction. “What about chocolate cheesecake?” he teased, leaning his head back slightly as El started softly stroking his hair, scowling at her for interrupting.

Veronica glared at Erik like she’d never glared before. “This exceeds chocolate cheesecake standards,” she muttered, gathering up her usual leggings and t-shirt to change into.

“Took you long enough.” Mia leaned against the doorframe casually, smirking with exactly the same amount of smugness as Erik. “I wouldn’t go out there if I were you. Serena and Gemma are at it.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Veronica called from the bathroom.

Erik reached over to his chair to retrieve his bag, and moments later he produced a water bottle, handing it to El.

“Thought you could use one that worked. You said you like purple, so, uh, it’s purple,” he pointed out unnecessarily. “I can return it if you don’t want it.”

El beamed. “You remembered that? Of course I want it. Now I feel bad that I don’t have anything for you … “

“Mmm, but I think you do,” Erik murmured, leaning back in.

“You better be going to his,” Mia yelled from the door, “because I’m leaving.”

***

Jade left willingly to go to ‘a friend’s place,’ which was suspicious in itself, but El wasn’t in a position to question her decisions. If she was willing to respect his privacy, the least he could do was return the favor.

Erik only stayed for dinner, going back to Mia for the night. They both agreed it was best not to move too fast.

El woke up to an email that said only:

_ Mia’s being a little shit. Please tell her we didn’t fuck. _

_ -Erik _

Just seeing the name at the bottom of the email was enough to make him smile widely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my local bubble tea shop for the idea, and for the countless afternoons spent there. I really miss going there with my friends every week, always on Tuesdays, for the deals. The line was a half hour long, but it was worth it every time. We’d sometimes go thrift shopping too.
> 
> UPDATE: my best friend legitimately brought me boba as my birthday present today. I am not kidding. Seriously, she went to our usual place and got me boba. I'm weeping. She doesn't even know about this fic.
> 
> I hope reading this brought you as much joy as I had writing it!
> 
> It's my birthday today! That said, I am by no means asking for birthday wishes. Believe me, my irl friends have got that COVERED. But if you wanted to leave me a comment / kudos, it would be extra special! If you're here at a later date, you can still do that! Seriously, you all make my day. Every time. *blows you a kiss from a distance*

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> please leave me a comment / kudos if you enjoyed. your support means so much to me and makes me super happy!


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